It is a grim time for the dragon Temeraire. On the heels of his mission to Africa, seeking the cure for a deadly contagion, he has been removed from military service - and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason. For Britain, conditions are grimmer still: Napoleon's resurgent forces have breached the Channel and successfully invaded English soil.

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Publisher's Summary

Naomi Novik's triumphant debut, His Majesty's Dragon, introduced a dynamic new pair of heroes to the annals of fantasy fiction: the noble fighting dragon Temeraire and his master and commander, Capt. Will Laurence. Now in the latest novel, they soar to new heights of breathtaking action and brilliant imagination.

It is a grim time for the dragon Temeraire. On the heels of his mission to Africa, seeking the cure for a deadly contagion, he has been removed from military service - and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason. For Britain, conditions are grimmer still: Napoleon's resurgent forces have breached the Channel and successfully invaded English soil. Napoleon's prime objective: the occupation of London.

Separated by their own government and threatened at every turn by Napoleon's forces, Laurence and Temeraire must struggle to find each other amid the turmoil of war and to aid the resistance against the invasion before Napoleon's foothold on England's shores can become a stranglehold.

If only they can be reunited, master and dragon might rally Britain's scattered forces and take the fight to the enemy as never before - for king and country, and for their own liberty. But can the French aggressors be well and truly routed, or will a treacherous alliance deliver Britain into the hands of her would-be conquerors?

Excellent installment in Novik's alterate-history account of the Napoleonic Wars if dragons had existed and been used by the European and British military forces, as well as a fascinating development of the dragon suffrage and abolitionist themes hinted at in earlier volumes.

The narration is very good, but the end of each audio part was slightly truncated, so that the last sentence was cut off. Luckily, I had a hard copy of the book, and could read the bits I missed, but the gaps were very disappointing in an audiobook.

This book, the fifth of the series, marks an improvement over the rather confused action of the last novel. The story returns to Britain, and to a Napoleonic invasion that must be fought off with the help of the disgraced main character. Where it retains the "Patrick O'Brien meets Jane Austin meets Tolkein" style, this is a more conventional narrative focused much more on warfare, with only brief (and not too convincing) diversions on the politics of England and the nature of honor. Fortunately, the battle scenes are fascinating, and occasionally wrenching, and there is plenty of action to go around.

But even as the action swells, the main drivers of the series, the characters of Temeraire and his captain, Will Laurence, become less dynamic. Will, especially, spends much of the book moping over his "treason" of the previous novel, and generally being cut off from friends and compatriots that have driven the relationships in previous novels.

If you liked the previous novels, this one is also a good read. But, in the end, this book continues the strangely unsatisfying approach the author has adopted - it ends on a cliffhanger, with few of the major issues resolved, and the series promising that the next novel will again take us to another, seemingly randomly decided-upon, far away land in the alternate universe of Temeraire, and thus further from whatever resolution Ms. Novik eventually hopes to achieve.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It's an entertaining story, more so than the previous book. I got hooked on the Temeraire character in the first book so I want to know what happens to him and his captain.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

After more or less marathoning these audiobooks you notice when the voice actor has been off doing other things and forgets how to voice a character after he gets back. Many of the voices were different and I had to get used to that. Worse, a couple of voices changed within this novel, and one officer had Angry Temeraire voice. :/

Did Victory of Eagles inspire you to do anything?

Cheer.

Any additional comments?

It's still a good story. I will keep listening. If the voices annoy me again, I'll just read the book.

Temeraire. This book lets us into his head, and Naomi Novik does an incredible job of making his thought process notably not human. He's almost childlike at points, but never unintelligent.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book can be difficult. Lawrence is punished for doing the right thing, and he spends this entire book suffering the consequences. While realistic, it can be unsettling to see this, especially when there's no indication that this burden will ever be removed from him.

My favorite in the series. Naomi begins to shift point-of-view to Temeraire occasionally, and that is delightful. His mind is clearly a dragon's and works slightly differently, yet easy to understand and identify and sympathise with. The battles and strategies are great, some of the best I've read and I'm pretty picky about such things. I really don't have anything bad to say.... Yeah, no, I really don't. If you haven't started Temeraire's series yet, start it now, it's worth it.

I am greatly taken with the characters, especially with the prickly young dragon who is a genius at math and strategy. As in the previous books, the language is eloquent and stirring, ably wielded by an excellent narrator.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Victory of Eagles?

The moment when the dragons, led by Temerare, all set off from the breeding grounds to fight against Napoleon as their own unit was particularly stirring.

Which scene was your favorite?

Perhaps my favorite scene is the one in which Lawrence realizes that Temerare has, in fact, set up his own camp, although the one in which Lizh Huan (sp.???) raises that enormous wave also shines brilliantly for me.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

If you could sum up Victory of Eagles in three words, what would they be?

awesome, awesomer, and awesomest!

What did you like best about this story?

This was finally the story I had been hoping for! Novik does a great job of exploring the world of 19th century with dragons in it in all of her books, but this was the book that I stayed up until 3 am to finish! Dragons fighting to save England!

Any additional comments?

I thought this book did a great job of both bringing together the "dragon's rights" struggles that had begun to simmer in the past books with the struggle to save England for Napoleon's forces as they knocked on the very doorsteps of the country.

I enjoyed every one of the books in the series, but I must admit that temeraire's development (sans Lawrence in his life) made me giddy with excitement at moments. This had a slightly different feel and perspective than the other books and I really loved some of the dragons introduced in this book. Not a thing negative from my end to report about the reader. He continues to impress.

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